Car-following models main characteristics: A review (original) (raw)

8TH ENGINEERING AND 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING – UNIVERSITY OF BAGHDAD: COEC8-2021 Proceedings

The Car-following model is a significant and essential part of developing any traffic micro-simulation model. This study has focused on the main types of the car-following model up to date with the main features or characteristics of this model: vehicle length, reaction time, buffer spaces, and different types of acceleration. This study attempts to figure out the optimum model and optimum values for the main characteristics of car-following models based on the previous studies. The results indicate that a safety model is the best model to represent the car-following behavior than other types. In this paper, other micro-characteristics have been summarized, too. Recently, a lot of traffic models were developed to characterize the reality of traffic behavior. However, some specific driver behavior parameters are still unspecified [1, 2]. A car-following model mainly represents the cornerstone to model the traffic impacts and different driving behaviors; this is the primary motivation to improve this model [3, 1] continuously. Hence, the developed car-following models have different strengths and weaknesses [3, 1]. Mainly, two main group factors affect the behavior of any car-following model: individual factors and situational factors. The first group includes driver and vehicle characteristics. In contrast, the second group factors are hurry and distraction, impairment resulting from alcohol, fatigue, trip purpose, and length of drive [4, 5, 6]. Therefore, this study tries to discover the significant characteristics of a car-following model to improve and develop new car-following models. Car-Following Models These models are divided into various kinds, and the main models are Gazis-Herman-Rothery (GHR), linear, safety distance, psychophysical, and fuzzy logic-based [5, 7, 8]. The GHR Model This model, also named as General Motors's model, was the most investigated and renowned and dates from the late fifties. The research was mainly conducted by a research group at General Motors Corp and carried by many other independent investigators [1]. The main basic principle that describes car-following models as a vehicle following its leader could be represented by a given stimulus [9] as follows: Response (t) = Sensitivity (t) x Stimulus (t) … ……(1) Having reported the response of the following vehicle to the preceding one, this response could be described by the acceleration (or deceleration) implemented by a driver using the control pedals. The stimulus-response model developed by [10] represented the motion of a car following in a single lane.